KLAS: Las Vegas food banks feeling strain of lapse in SNAP funding

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — With nearly half a million Nevadans relying on SNAP benefits, those recipients are now lining up at food banks and distribution centers for food. 

There were cars and people lined up at the Just One Project waiting for a chance to get enough food to get them through the week

“The Just One Project is always set to serve 200 clients every single day, Monday through Friday. Today, we are getting ready to serve 700 people,” Brooke Neubauer, chief executive officer of the Just One Project, said. “One thing that I learned very early on in my career in fighting food insecurity is that hunger has no face.”

Neubauer said her organization is considered a distribution point for the Three Square. 

“We’re just really grateful that we’re able to step in at this time of crisis for so many southern Nevadans that don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” Neubauer said. 

U.S. Rep. Susie Lee (D) Nevada, stopped by the Just One Project and talked to volunteers. She reacted to the Trump Administration’s decision on Monday to release almost $5 billion in contingency funds for SNAP, funding the program for two weeks. 

“I just want you to see the human toll that this cruel decision has on these people who, one, have to go to work. They have to get their kids to school. They might have sick parents at home, and now they’re waiting in food lines,” Lee said. 

Republic Gov. Joe Lombardo toured Three Square Monday morning, and he said he has lobbied Congress on behalf of Nevada. 

“We need the Democratic senators to make the decision to reopen the government,” Gov. Lombardo said. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D), Nevada, has voted repeatedly for a House-passed bill to fund the government through Nov. 21. 

Cortez Masto’s colleague, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D), has not voted to reopen the government. 

Officials at both The Just One Project and Three Square stated that no amount of donations can supplement federal aid.